Blood Work

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

Gregk and Thomas pause to reflect on some of the topics covered since they last spoke, and meditate on recent events.

Image: A still from Werner Herzog’s 1992 documentary Lessons of Darkness

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

For more:

– Support Blood Work via Patreon

– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Look What They Made Us Do
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

For this week’s newsletter, we use a recent piece from The New Republic to question America’s flailing attempts to disentangle itself from a war of its own making – in narrative, if not in actuality.

Joe and Gregk use Gregory Stanton’s ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’ to discuss the tactics & techniques states deploy to legitimise and perpetrate mass murder.

Image: Remains of victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide retrieved from a mass grave in Huye District in January, 2024.

Follow Joe Kassabian on Bluesky

Listen to Lions Led by Donkeys

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

If you enjoyed this episode:
– Support Blood Work via Patreon
– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app
– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

 

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Blue Danube
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

For this week’s newsletter, enjoy some brief thoughts on the election results which rolled out of Hungary last week, and what it might mean for that country and Europe now that the American right’s favourite lap-dog is hitting the skids.

Sources:

Gregory Stanton (1996), ‘Ten Stages of Genocide’, available at Genocide Watch

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

We take a foray into the world of euphemisms, turns-of-phrase and the disingenuous world of militarese

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

For more:

– Support Blood Work via Patreon

– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Stupid Games
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

For this week’s newsletter, we offered some commentary on the (then ongoing) peace talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad, some surrounding issues, and predictions on the course those talks might take. (News moves fast these days.)

We look at the history of women’s participation in suicide bombing attacks and how society has tried to make sense of women who carry out the most extreme political act of all.

If you enjoyed this episode:
– Support Blood Work via Patreon
– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app
– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

 

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: If You Want Blood…
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

For this week’s newsletter, we take a look at a recent essay by Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif in Foreign Affairs and provide some commentary on what he gets right and why, and also why neither Washington nor Tehran are likely to listen to him.

 

Sources:

BBC, ‘UK Fire girl still defiant’, BBC

Burku Pinar Alacoc (2018), ‘Femme Fatale: The Lethality of Female Suicide Bombers’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

Mia Bloom (2007), ‘Female suicide bombers’, Daedalus

John Campbell (2020), ‘Women, Boko Haram and Suicide Bombings’, Council on Foreign Relations

Paige Whaley Eager (2008), From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists: Women and Political Violence

Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Associaton (FFI-LEHI), ‘Raskin, Fania – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association’

Jordan Galehan (2019), ‘Instruments of Violence: Female suicide bombers of Boko Haram’, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice

Audrey Gillan (17 Feb 1999), ‘'We came here not to get out alive. We're ready for anything'’, The Guardian

Bilal Tawfiq Hamamra (2018), ‘Witness and martyrdom: Palestinian female martyrs’ video-testimonies’, Journal for Cultural Research

Vesna Markovic (2019), ‘Suicide Squad: Boko Haram’s Use of the Female Suicide Bomber’, Justice, Law, and Public Safety Studies Department Faculty Articles

Tanya Narozhna and W. Andy Knight (2016), Female Suicide Bombings: A Critical Gender Approach

Al Chukwuma Okoli, ‘Gender and Terror: Boko Haram and the Abuse of Women in Nigeria’, available at Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

Ann Preesman (2021), ‘Female Suicide Bombers: An Uncomfortable Truth’, available at King’s College, London

G. Julie Rajan (2011), Women Suicide Bombers: Narratives of Violence

Leandra Bathal Serrano (2024), ‘Female Suicide Bombers As A Security Threat: Towards A More Comprehensive And Inclusive Approach’, available at European Student Think Tank

Keren Wang (2025), ‘Boko Haram’s Strategic Use of Female Suicide Bombers: Where Women Have No Choices’, Politics and Security Governance

Image: A photograph of Sana’a Mehaidli, 16, a Lebanese woman who became the first female suicide bomber in 1985.

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

In the conclusion to our series, we look at what happened when the Soviet Union collapsed, and the rifles it had been making for over four decades started leaking out into a rapidly changing world.

Image: A screencap from a video dated June, 2001, showing al-Qaeda militants wielding Kalashnikov rifles at al-Farouq training camp, Kandahar, Afghanistan

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

For more:

– Support Blood Work via Patreon

– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: A Quiet Place
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

This week, we return to the civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, spurred by new in-depth reporting of the RSF’s devastating siege and assault on El Fasher in October of last year.